It’s no secret that football is important to the Southwest High community.

It’s what has put the school on the map across the state, but just how big and important is the sport?

Allow coach Phil Padgett to shed some light on that with a story that happened during the dark hours of the morning.

“I just remember a few years ago, it’s like 4:30 in the morning in the late spring and I can’t sleep and I’m going out there to get my paper,” Padgett said. “It’s dark and the garbage truck comes by. I can’t even see the guy and I hear, ‘HEY COACH, y’all going to be any good next year?’

But Padgett’s experience with hard-core Stallion fans doesn’t end with the garbage collectors. They also come when he’s shopping.

“Our community wants us to win,” he said. “I’ll walk into Wal-Mart and I’ll get 10 hits about Stallion football. There’s a love there. Everybody in our community wants us to win, and I appreciate that, but there’s pressure. But no more pressure than I put on myself.”

Smooth transition

Being a first-year head coach — and a young one at that — can be tough.

Dixon interim head coach Brandon Iseman is certainly learning how hard is it since he’s been leading the Bulldogs following coach Ray Swaney’s deployment last month to Afghanistan with the Army Reserves.

“I guess like anything you run into challenges you’re not expecting,” Iseman said. “I think for me the on-the-field management is easy. I feel comfortable with that, and I feel comfortable with running practices and with what we need to get done.

“But I think when it comes to a lot of the off-the-field things like communicating with parents to making sure we got dates nailed down and all those logistical things, maybe I’ve learned to do it on the fly.”

Despite those adjustments, Iseman said he’s having fun being the man in charge.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “It’s nice to be able, when you have an idea, to put that in play.”

Now about that pressure

Padgett said his program faced pressure to win the state title last year after the Stallions hadn’t return to the state final since losing to Albemarle in the 2009 1-AA title game. While a lot of teams are just happy with a playoff berth, Southwest is used to contending for state titles.

“Once you’ve been there, you want to go back and if you don’t go for a couple of years, it kind of gnaws on you a little bit,” Padgett said. “We went back last year and won it. It didn’t make me say, ‘God, we got it off our back,’ but when you’ve been there as many times as we have and all of the sudden you go a few years like we did, you do put more pressure on yourself.”

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Moving forward

The Stallions are certainly the area’s most successful program as their NCHSAA 1-AA title last year marked the school’s fourth state football crown. Still, Padgett knows that doesn’t mean anything entering this season.

“We have been as successful in this 25-year run that I’ve been fortunate to be apart of and it’s hard to be better than we we’ve done, but that doesn’t do a dang-on thing this fall,” Padgett said. “We’ve been successful and we are going to try to continue to be. But I promise, our coaches will work extra hard to hopefully continue the success.

“It’s tough to maintain the level we’ve been at and that’s pressure in itself.”

No answer

Every team has a strength — or at least something coaches can points to as a starting block.

Right?

Well, that’s not exactly the case for White Oak, said coach Chad Ashley, who believes his team doesn’t have one stand-out physical thing the Vikings can build on from this season.

“Honestly, I don’t know what our strengths are just because last year and the fact we were so inadequate,” Ashley said. “We have so many areas (that needed to improve). We have improved in a lot of areas.”

Mentally, however, Ashley believes his team will be strong. He said his players have bought into the system. Still, the Vikings have to show it on the field.

“I don’t know what that means on the scoreboard,” Ashley said.

Moving on

Padgett was asked if returning players have been complacent since they won the state title in December with a 44-34 victory over Swain County.

“You’re always going to have a couple of kids who are kind of just looking at their rings and shining them up,” he said. “But, overall, we’ve worked pretty hard and we had a pretty good spring. We don’t want to win a state championship and then go 2-9. That’s not our style.

“Our skill guys have really busted their butts and our linemen have done a good job. I think the coaching staff has worked twice as hard to get ready for the season.”

And the players have been working hard in the memory of quarterback Shak Pershey, whose drowning death in May shocked the Southwest community.

“We are probably even hungrier than we were last year,” senior offensive lineman Brad Cannon said. “We want to do it for Shak.”

Not bitter

Ashley said he doesn’t have a bitter taste in his mouth after his first season saw WOHS go 1-10 — with the victory a forfeit over D.H. Conley.

Page 3 of 3 - “I guess the way I look at it is, I want to have more success than we had last year,” he said, “but I don’t know if bitter is the right word. It was a very long year.”

Short kicks?

East Duplin has usually benefitted from strong-legged and reliable kickers capable of recording touchbacks on kickoffs and making their extra points and field goals. But coach Battle Holley said special teams have been a work in progress so far, especially the kicking part.

“We might be onside kicking every time,” he quipped. “We just don’t have that guy who can kick it in the end zone or even get it close.”

Tough slate

Holley didn’t dispute it when told East Duplin faced a difficult schedule, including power programs Wallace-Rose Hill and James Kenan to go along with Northside and Southwest in East Central 2-A Conference play.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t like it.

“I like playing against people that good and the kids like it, too,” Holley said. “It’s a challenge. We are going to have to come ready to play every week. We are not going to be able to take a week off. I think it will be fun and exciting to play those guys.”

Speaking of tough

Northside also faces a challenging schedule that features four 3-A teams, although the Monarchs do play host to Mattamuskeet, one of the state’s smaller schools.

“When you win a lot, scheduling is harder,” coach Bob Eason said. “If you lose a lot, scheduling is really easy. We are a victim of our own success.”